No word yet on Return and Earn collection point for Bathurst

And there is still no word on when Bathurst will get a collection point of its own despite locals already paying more for some drink products due to the start of the Return and Earn scheme.

The NSW Government promised to have 85 per cent of the proposed 500 Return and Earn sites up and running by December 1.

Instead, there will be 230 sites open and 185 of them will be located within Sydney.

Cowra, Wellington, Dunedoo and Coonabarabran are the locations that are currently listed on the Return and Earn website for the Central West and Orana regions.

Cowra and Wellington will be the Return and Earn reverse vending machines, while Dunedoo and Coonabarabran will be over-the-counter returns. Young also has a reverse vending machine collection point.

A NSW Environment Protection Authority spokesperson was unable to provide any detail on when Bathurst might get a collection point. 

“More than 200 collection points across NSW are available online,” the spokesperson said. 

“The NSW Government is working closely with the Network Operator, Tomra Cleanaway, to continue rolling out collection points.

“This is just the start of the roll out – many more sites are currently being finalised.”

Labor spokesman for the western NSW electorate of Barwon, Daniel Mookhey, said regional residents had been let down.

“It’s not fair on the people of NSW. If you are in Orange, Bathurst or Dubbo, you would be entitled to ask why you don’t have a return point yet,” he said.

Mr Mookhey said regional retailers were also being harmed because customers were angry they had to pay more, without any way of claiming the rebate.

“They aren’t able to tell their customers when they can get the rebate,” he said.

“Some of those retailers have said they would have been interested in being collection points but they weren’t given a chance.”